Certain monitoring apparatuses are known in the art. One current art method is to have a multiple compartment pill container for daily pills taken on a regular basis. The pill container lists each day of the week on seven compartments, for example, and at the start of each week a user fills the container with the pills for week. This method works well for users having a daily routine with pills meant to be taken once a day. But it is not always helpful for pills intended to be taken more than once a day. The multiple compartment pill container also does not work well for users who do not have a daily routine or for users who are taking pills for a particular illness for a short period of time. Such intermittent users of medicine are not likely to have a weekly container. Even if the intermittent users do have such a weekly container, they are not in the habit of using the container and the container may go unused.
Accordingly, in addition to the standard weekly pharmaceutical container method, other known reminder and timing methods and devices exist. These prior art devices and methods typically rely on complicated mechanical devices or electronic devices. These complicated devices are normally designed to let a user know when the pill bottle was opened last. Since most pill bottles are small, these complicated prior art devices are unwieldy, weigh too much, are too expensive, and can be difficult to use.
The monitoring apparatus described herein can be used in a large number of different contexts and associated with many different apparatuses. One important example of a potential use of the monitoring apparatus described herein concerns the importance of taking medication or vitamins when they are supposed to be taken. Some studies show that 10% of hospital visits are caused by patients not taking their medications as instructed.
This failure to take medication as instructed often occurs because the user simply can't remember whether or not they have taken their medicine. This forgetfulness can result in either (1) a failure to take a pill on time because the person believes they have already done so, or (2) taking an additional pill (i.e. over medication) because they have forgotten that they have previously taken one. Either scenario can be dangerous or at very least not optimum from a dosage standpoint.
Other uses of the monitoring apparatus described herein include any context in which a user would like to know if they or someone else has recently performed some task (e.g. opening a container). The monitoring apparatus described herein is especially desirable when the person doesn't need to know exactly when they last performed some act (i.e. electronic exactness in time keeping is not necessary). Examples include a timer on sun tan lotion to alert a user to reapply after an amount of time has passed, a timer on a liquid soap bottle, a timer on a toothbrush, a timer on a container of toothpaste, (e.g. toothpaste tube), household cleaners with a time component related to their use, parents monitoring their children's use of items such as a TV remote, determining when a container of milk was last opened (e.g. how long has it been out of the refrigerator), monitoring whether a user's pet has been fed via a timer on the pet's food bowl, and so forth.
What is needed is a simple, small, and cost effective apparatus and method to inform a user of a medical container, toothpaste tube or some other apparatus or container when the user last opened or used the apparatus or container or performed some act.